Random Jottings

World Book Night 2013

I have  been asked if I would post about this wonderful initiative and am more than pleased to do so.  Please see below:

"World Book Night 2013 launches tonight with the titles announcement for 2013, and the official opening of the giver recruitment process.  20,000 members of the public will volunteer to give away 20 copies of one of 20 books on 23^rd April 2013 to help spread a love of reading.  400,000 books will be distributed by individual givers on World Book Night – in total World Book Night will give the equivalent of an average day’s book sales in the UK. An additional 100,000 books will be distributed centrally by World Book Night through charity partners and institutions.

 World Book Night CEO Julia Kingsford said:

“Fiction and non-fiction, classic and contemporary, prize winners and bestsellers; this year’s World Book Night books are united by being brilliantly enjoyable reads. With the help of 20,000 passionate volunteers putting them directly into the hands of those who don’t regularly read, they’ll inspire hundreds of thousands of people across the country to fall in love with reading.”

The 2013 Titles are:

1.       The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

2.       Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (RHCB)

3.       The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (HarperCollins) 

4.       The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Hodder)

5.       Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (Vintage)

6.       A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich (Yale)

7.       The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)

8.       Little Face by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)

9.       Damage by Josephine Hart (Virago)

10.    The Island by Victoria Hislop (Headline)

11.    Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (Picador)

12.    Last Night Another Soldier… by Andy McNab (Transworld)

13.    Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Penguin)

14.    Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker)

15.    The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Orion)

16.    No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Little, Brown)

17.    Treasure Island by R. L. Stevenson (Penguin)

18.    The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Vintage)

19.    Judge Dredd: The Dark Judges by John Wagner (Rebellion)

20.    Why be Happy When You Could be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Vintage)

The giving process is now officially open, and World Book Night is calling for members of the public to apply to be a ‘Giver’ through its brand new website www.worldbooknight.org which also launches today. Applications will close on 23 January 2013, and successful applicants will be informed by mid-February 2013.

World Book Night is committed to introducing reading to those in hardest to reach communities – reluctant readers, or those who simply don’t have access to books. This year’s list includes a ‘Quick Read’ by Andy McNab - marking a new partnership between World Book Night and Quick Reads* - and for the first time ever, a graphic novel, offering a diverse range of titles that should have something for everyone. 

Reiterating last year’s focus on institutional giving, a further 100,000 copies will again be distributed centrally by World Book Night through prisons, libraries, hospitals and other places where books are not readily available.  In addition, by popular demand, it will now be possible for institutional givers to apply through the website for multiple sets of books.

 World Book Night began in 2011 as a unique collaboration between publishers, booksellers, librarians, writers and individual members of the public – all of whom are committed to sharing their love of books and reading with the wider world, improving literacy levels and changing lives through the giving away of specially printed books. In the UK, over half of adults of working age have literacy levels below the level of a good GCSE, whilst 16% are at or below that of an 11 year old. Research has proved that sparking a desire to read can have profound effects on literacy, not to mention employability, social interaction, happiness and well-being. 

Since the first World Book Night, hundreds of thousands of people, from every corner of the UK, have got involved and experienced the amazing feeling that giving the gift of a book can have.

 “For me, World Book Night 2012 turned into a day about people, sharing and passing on a bit of hope to those who doubt that there is anything worth hoping for.” 

- Emily Hunter, WBN 2012 Giver, The Alchemist

Survey results from over 11,000 givers from 2012 show that World Book Night was an overwhelmingly positive experience, with 98% saying that they would consider applying to be a giver in subsequent years, and 98.8% saying that they would recommend it to others. 95% of those surveyed felt that they had been quite or very successful at reaching those who don’t regularly read"

Over to you Random Readers..............

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and other childhood favourites

A lovely new edition of Black Beauty from OUP World's Classics dropped through my letterbox last week and instant nostalgia set in as I opened it up and started to read.   I remember this book so well from my childhood and, along with Beth dying in Good Wives, the death of Ginger in Black Beauty was a deeply upsetting part of my early reading and has never been forgotten.

It is Anna Sewell's only book and as she suffered a fall when she was fifteen years old which resulted in permanent lameness, she became very reliant on horses.  She was born in 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and because of her poor health she never married and lived with her parents all her life. Anna became a skilled rider and obviously had a deep understanding and sympathy with these animals, hence her book which has been called the 'Autobiography of a Horse'.  Written in the first person (or should that be first horse?) we see life through the eyes of Black Beauty and the ups and downs, cruelties and kindnesses meted out to him during her life.   She ends up as a cab horse and one day meets up with an old companion, Ginger:

"How changed. The beautifully arched and glossy neck was now straight and lank and fallen in and the clean straight legs and fetlocks were swelled......the face that was once so full of spirit and life was now full of suffering.....a short time after this a cart with a dead horse in it passed our cabstand....I believe it was Ginger, I hoped it was for then her troubles would be over.  Oh! if men were more merciful they would shoot us before we came to such misery"

I am writing this with a lump in my throat and feeling pretty choked up and this passage has had the same effect on me when I read it all those years ago.  It is wonderful how first impressions stay with you all your life.

I have mentioned Good Wives above, which I recently re-read and talked about and received lots of lovely comments (review here) and it made me think about other of my childhood books which I love dearly and still read today, as an adult.  The Wind in the Willows did not impinge until I was in my late teens when, for some reason, I picked it up, read it and fell in love with Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad.   When my girls were small we had a DVD with a puppet version of this book, Toad being voiced by the wonderful David Jason. I gave it to Helen last year and when I was in London last week was simply delighted to see that Florence had watched it and had loved the adventures of the characters and was able to talk to me about it and tell me how dangerous the Wild Wood was.  So are stories passed down to the next generation.  I have a copy of the WInd in the Willows which I will give to her when she is a little older.  You can see from the picture below that I have a few others lined up as well......

This led me to think about the books I loved as a child. I thought I would post about them and ask you all for your fond memories of those you read and which have stayed with you for ever.   As well as the books about the March family, I read An Old Fashioned Girl by L M Alcott which I loved almost as much as the Little Women series; Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom also but not loved quite as much. I have wonderful editions of these in the old Green Virago covers which I cherish dearly.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge - another children's book undiscovered by me until in my teens and which I posted about here.   Simply adore this book and have a copy on my shelves with illustrations by C Walter Hodges which are simply marvellous.     Then Rosemary Sutcliff and another of my favourites The Armourer's House, again one with illustrations by Hodges.  I was less enamoured of her stories set in the days of the Roman Legion, not my cup of tea at all but one story Simon set in the Civil War was another one I remember well.

Then E Nesbit.  The Railway Children, naturally, but FIve Children and It, The Enchanted Castle and so many others gave me hours of reading pleasure.  My old battered copies are still in my possession.

I cannot let a post on my favourite childhood reading pass by without mentioning Anne of Green Gables. Oh how I loved this book, how I cried when Matthew died, how I laughed when Anne died her hair green, when she smashed her slate over Gilbert's head....love love love it all.   It was not until years later that I realised this was just the first in a series. My library only stocked this one title and it was not until a lucky visit to a jumble sale when I discovered a box of L M Montgomery's books under a table and bought the lot of a fiver, that I realised there were so many more to come.  I simply wallowed in them and followed Anne through from schoolgirl to teacher, to marriage and motherhood and had the most glorious reading binge I think I have ever had.  The my blood was up and I was off tracking down all her other books. I now have every single title she wrote and I can see them if I glance up and look at my bookshelves.   These are books I also hope that Florence will like but we shall see.

In between all these reads I devoured, at various stages, all the Enid Blyton books I could lay my hands on.  Famous Five were ok, not too keen on the Secret Seven but I loved the Adventure stories featuring Jack, Lucy-Ann, Dinah and Philip and Kiki the parrot.  Still have all of those with the wonderful illustrations by Stuart Tresilian - some of them still have their dust jackets as well.  All my Famous Five books disappeared in a house move some years ago, I have a sneaky feeling my mother got rid of them though she would never admit to it!

When I look back at some of the books I read as a child and young teenager I am slightly surprised at some of the titles.  I mean Quo Vadis?   think I read that after seeing a dreadful film in the cinema which starred, if I remember rightly, Peter Ustinov as Nero fiddling while Rome burned.   Then I remember very clearly reading St Paul's and later WIndsor Castle by W Harrison Ainsworth a long forgotten Victorian writer.  I particularly remember St Paul's had vivid descriptions in of the plague and all its symptoms which gave me nightmares for weeks, and the Great Fire of London. All pretty gruesome and not sure I could read them now so heaven knows why I read them then.

This post has now triggered off a whole shoal of memories but had better stop here before I tell you about all the other books read that have popped into my mind.   I am sure many of you have great reading experienes when you were young and would dearly love to hear of those books which you remember from your childhood.

So do tell us what they are.

Go on, you know you want to....

I am sorry for the dearth of reviews at the moment but I am just so busy and tomorrow and doing a mercy dash to London to help look after Florence who is not well and cannot go to nursery. I had a re-read last week of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell which was one of my childhood favourites and it was lovely reading it again and made me nostalgic and gave me an idea for writing about my favourite books as a child. This will have to wait for the moment so Gentle Readers, please bear with me...

Random Ramblings

Well it is Friday and not sure where time goes to these days, I really don't.  I look back on my life getting up at the crack of dawn, my rush to the station and my commute, then work then home again and sometimes I think it looks leisurely compared to what I am doing at the moment....ok I am joking but I seem to have so much to do and write and think and cook that time seems too short to fit it all in.   But please don't think I am complaining, I am not.

Was in town this morning and popped into Smith's to pick up a newspaper and decided to wander upstairs and look at the book department though it is always a dispiriting experience in this particular store.  And, yes, the usual 'sleb' biographies are out in force for Christmas; the usual refugee from Eastenders; Wayne Rooney My Life Volume 3;    X listed wannabees telling us all about their recovering from drink/drugs/bulimia/anorexia you name it they are recovering from it and so on and so on. At the moment they are selling 2 for £10 and I guarantee the charity shop shelves will be packed with them come January 2013.

I saw many such books in the NSPCC Book Sale which I attended last weekend.  It has been held in Colchester for years now and I used to take the girls when they were smaller and we used to come back with bagloads of stuff.   There used to be tables with hardback books which is where I used to head for straight away as it was always full of interesting battered old books and I have found some gems there. Then there was a corner full of the Green Viragos, also a fertile hunting ground. Only after I had gone through this lot did I turn my attention to the rest of the books available.  Over the last few years I have noticed how the content has changed.  Very few hardbacks now and those that are there are mainly of the Dick Francis, Dean Koontz variety with a large collection of those books I have mentioned in the paragraph above.   Probably all Christmas presents for friends and relatives as a last resort and then discarded.   Very few of any quality at all.

The paperback section is now packed with pretty run of the mill stuff; more Francis, Danielle Steele, masses of Sagas and chicklit and finding a decent story there is difficult.  Purely from my point of view of course and I appreciate that I am sounding a bit snobbish about all this as customers were staggering around totally loaded with bulging bags.   Only one or two Viragos now and a few battered 'classics' waved the flag but they were thin on the ground.    I came away with a bag of stuff, however, as I was on the look out for the DCI Banks books by Peter Robinson as am having another binge read of these at the moment - found four of those. A couple of Tess Gerritsen that I had not read (her earlier ones before the Rizzoli and Isles series); two, What I Call Sofa Reads by Susan Sallis which look fun; the Yellow Dog by Simenon - have been meaning to try the Maigret books for some time - let's face it there are enough of them to keep me happy for years;  Gillespie and I by Jane Harris.   I then came across a new copy of Dear Lupin letters to a wayward son which I had read parts of earlier in the year in a newspaper serialisation and thought deligtful so pocketed that.  Then a National Trust tea time cookbook; The Art of the Tart (I hasten to add of the baked variety) by Tamasin Day Lewis and a copy of Delia Smith's Summer Cooking which I had managed to lose a year or so ago and glad to be able to replace.  I will probably find that this is my copy which I donated by mistake, it has happened to me before....

You may think I did not do too badly and you would be right but I used to come away with about forty or fifty and I really had to hunt for these this year.    The good thing about this sale though is that it is packed year after year with people waiting for the doors to open and the children's section is the busiest of the lot.   The death of the book has been predicted so often that I am simply delighted to see this sale so well attended.

I also came away with three jigsaw puzzles which I could not resist. I love jigsaw puzzles and particularly those with pictures of country cottages and Victorian paintings.  This time I have one of a cottage somewhere in the Cotswolds, a painting of a little girl in a ruffled dress with her faithful hound and one of the Grand Canal by Canaletto.   Looking forward to doing these.

My lovely mum used to shake her head when she used to see me come home with bulging bags - 'Haven't you got enough books?' she used to say 'Where are you going to put them all?   She was somewhat reassured when I told her that most of them would be recycled and probably end up back in the same sale next year, but she still used to mutter under her breath ...

I was in London this week with my gorgeous darling grandchildren and one of the joys of being in their house is the fact that there are books everywhere, shelves in every room and Florence already owning a large collection.   When I visited Kathryn in Australia last year also pleased to see well stacked book cases.  

Good to know I have brought up my children properly and that they are keeping book sales going!